Best Mortgage Rate Calculator

Mortgage Rate Calculator

This comparison calculator will help you to compare monthly payments and interest costs of home mortgages at up to five interest rates simultaneously.

Enter the mortgage principal amount and the length of the mortgage in years. Then, either enter a starting interest rate and select the percentage to increment the comparison rates, or enter a rate for each of the five "Interest Rate" fields.

Comparing Mortgage Rates

This calculator will be especially useful to those who are in the market for a house and a loan to make their dream home affordable, but who are also in the throes of shopping for a borrowing scheme that fits their financial circumstances ideally. Annual interest rates, or APR in the language of real estate, can be one of the most decisive factors in determining how your loan will be scheduled, how much you will pay of principal and interest at any certain time, and what your debt picture will look like at the various stages of your amortization. You can use this calculator to compare what your mortgage bill will be like within the scenarios of several differing interest rates. Using it will be helpful in preparing you for the possibility of your APR changing (usually increasing, according to the laws of the lending world), as well as to help you decide on a particular loan among several with different interest rates. APR can make a world of difference between a no-stress loan and one that exceeds the appropriate debt to income ratio of your monthly salary.

How the Calculator Works

By entering a maximum of five different interest rates into the calculator, or simply entering one that increases by a fraction of a percentage or up to 1%, you can view your payment possibilities within five varying lenses. Your mortgage principal and loan term will determine the rest. Let's see what the calculator looks like when we plug in the details of an $80,000 principal 30 year loan. If we give it a starting APR of 6.5% that increases in increments of 1% up to 10.5%, we will see a vast difference between a monthly payment of $506 in the first case to $732 with the maximum interest rate. This makes a difference of $81,409 over a 30 year loan period. This figure just serves to underline the importance of seeking the lowest possible APR when on the hunt for a loan that you can live with for a number of years. Of course, APR is influenced by multiple factors, with bank choice, credit score, borrower statistics, and loan term and amount among the chief determining variables. Your age, location, employment history and marital status are just some of those things that can have an effect on your APR, as they are taken into account when determining your credit score and/or loan eligibility.

What about a Fixed APR?

Those who are able to get a fixed APR will be best off when it comes to having a predictable financial future. Changing interest rates can be a thorn in the side of the most worthy homeowner, if they are not prepared for their monthly bill to rise by a few dollars or even much more. Fixed APR loans that will give you financial peace of mind about the future of your mortgage will often come in 15 or 30 year options, and are available through many major banks such as Bank of America or Wells Fargo. You can also consider the possibility of lowering your APR by beginning your loan with points which are essentially pre-paid loan aids representing a certain percentage of your principal. Be sure to ask your lender if that is an option for you.